In celebration of Bike Month and World Environment Day, the City of Colorado Springs is hosting a free tour of Colorado Springs trees via bicycle starting at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 5, 2011.

The ride is suitable for beginners and will cover about 6 miles. It begins in the Monument Valley Park parking lot and concludes a block away at the Cornerstone Arts Center in time for the 5 p.m. World Environment Day celebration at Colorado College. Attendees should bring their own bicycles, helmets weather gear, and water. A rain day is scheduled for Saturday, June 18.

The tour covers parts of the Old North End, Shooks Run and Downtown with visits to several notable trees and a touch of local tree history. Tree species include: golden rain tree, hawthorn, American elm, lacebark pine, Kentucky coffeetree, Japanese tree lilac, red oak, Southwestern white pine, plains cottonwood, Japanese pagoda, rock elm, swamp white oak,hackberry, catalpa, English oak, bur oak, box elder, honey locust, Ohio buckeye, London plane tree and Austrian pine.

·Trees keep our air fresh by supplying the oxygen that we breathe and absorbing the carbon dioxide that we exhale and are emitted by factories and engines. Some trees also trap and filter out dust and pollen on their hairy leaf surfaces.

·Trees save energy. Trees are natural air conditioners - they lower air temperature by evaporating water in their leaves. Trees can also reduce home heating and cooling costs. Large, broad-leafed shade trees are most effective shading the east and west windows from summer sun while keeping south-facing windows open to the winter sun reduces the need to heat in winter.

·Trees act as barriers, which cuts down noise pollution and slows strong winds.